The night flowed on and the torches didn't appear in the distance again. However, when Gil had woken up again he took Midnight out with him to scout the area. "Those three torches were not just three people walking around. There were about ten of them. I don't think that's a good thing. We are heading toward whatever it was since they headed right down the path you are planning." This seemed to be a problem for all of them.
"Do I even risk saying it? Are they water elves or something that the water elves might control?" Leon was not about to say that these were definitely a true statement. However, he knew that the water elves would use water sprites or nymphs to defend their territory. These could be one and the same.
"I don't think so. If they were anything water related they wouldn't leave this kind of footprint. The nymphs don't leave footprints at all. They leave puddles and cold icy spots. We have a few in the forest but much less than a lake would have. If it were a tree spirit or wood sprite I would tell you that they would leave vine and leaf patterns in the snow and mud." Alma was torn. The footprints that they saw would mean that the water elves might have started taming other monsters. This would be wildly unlike the water elves that they knew.
"No point in worrying about it now. Let's just head in to the brooks and streams more. I want to be able to see what everything is. If I read the map right there should be a natural spring up ahead with warmer water. The dwarves even marked that it was a lava cave beneath the area. I would love to explore a lava cave at some point but there are no safe entrances around." Walker had his fantasies about the lava cave and potentially finding some amazing diamond like materials.
"Count me out of lava caves this trip. I won't even go in to that boiling water. Too dangerous." There was a nerve that Walker seemed to have hit by bringing this up. The merfolk did not do well with hot and dry. They also learned from a young age to avoid the potentially toxic underwater boiling vents from such lava areas.
"We are not exploring that. We have a different quest to achieve. Let us head on. If such a spring exists I am sure that we will see other travelers there. They could give us the answers." Midnight huffed in agreement with Neil. He was less worried about such things and knew that they would have the answers they needed one way or another.
The group cleaned up their mess easily and pushed down the path. Nothing seemed odd other than the footprints showing that the trail was better traveled than they knew. However, they only saw such footprints. Nothing else.
"U thought we would see other merchant trails too. The spring should be a big deal. The only other one we know of is by the beach right?" Gil had enjoyed the spring and was certain that a spot like that would be very populated around here. It was near the demi-human borders and could be traveled to by anyone with proper guards.
"I'm wondering what the grass seems to be shorter around here as well." Since Alma was very in tune with nature, she could tell that something was stunting the growth of the grass nearby. The closer they made it toward the spring the more she noticed it.
"That smell…" Both Midnight and Neil were slowly stopped in their tracks. They could tell the sweet scent was getting stronger than it was before.
'The user has been in a prolonged exposure to a poison. The skill high poison resistance has been taken from the thousand antidote system. The user has automatically learned the skill high poison resistance due to their exposure and high sensitivity to mana.
High poison resistance- passive or 2 mana per hour
The user is able to use their mana to process poisons in the air, waters, and on their skin. This allows them to resist the effects of such poisons along with share their mana with allies to help them resist as well. This resistance is a cut above all others. It will perfectly resist most poisons unless they are extremely concentrated. Prolonged exposure means nothing to such high resistance.'
"Stop!" Walker made everyone else come close to him while he shared his mana with them. It was an easy action for him to pass on some mana to them and protect them.
"What's wrong? Why did you share mana with us and it says that the poison is being resisted?" Walker could see a flushed face slowly disappearing from Gil. No one had noticed that they were becoming red faced and unsteady. The only people that had managed to resist were Neil and Midnight since they had much high resistance to any poison due to their races. Walker had managed to gain a skill and resisted more due to his relationship with Midnight.
'Poison, it's in the air. That's the sweet smell. I can't get an appraisal on it but it's in the air. I'm willing to bet that it's in the water up ahead too." Poisoning the water of the spring would explain why it was in the air. The real question was, who would do such a thing?
"You don't think…" Alma feared that the water elves had either poisoned the water themselves or were poisoned. If that was the problem and it had been going on for a long time then that would definitely make the water elves less likely to relate themselves with the other races. It could all be made clear.
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